About

The Scarlet Spotlight is hosted by two dedicated Rutgers alumni, Danny Breslauer and Jon Newman.

Danny Breslauer

Danny Breslauer is an alumnus of Rutgers University, a 2010 graduate from the final class of Rutgers College and a proud native of Highland Park, NJ. Prior to college, Danny was an intern for WCTC-AM, covering Scarlet Knights athletics and local news for longtime Rutgers announcer Bruce Johnson’s staff.

Danny and his younger brother Jordan grew up as part of the RU community (and season ticket holders), with their parents, Kenneth Breslauer and Sherrie Schwab, both working at or around the University.Kenneth is in his 45th year at Rutgers in 2018-2019, and was in administration in life & health sciences for 32 years. He currently serves as Linus C. Pauling Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at RU.

While On the Banks (2006-2010), Danny was a staffer, sports director and general manager at WRSU-FM, providing play-by-play for dozens of games across multiple sports and co-hosting a Friday show called “The Scarlet Pulse” with now MLB Network segment producer Adam Helfgott. During his junior year at RU, Danny was named the No. 8 collegiate sportscaster in the nation by Sportscasters Talent Agency of America (STAA). Shortly thereafter (Sept. 2009), the Rutgers athletic department named him the Voice of KnightVision – RU’s over-the-top (OTT) platform that would be rebranded to RVision in 2011. Over the course of nearly six years as the top voice of RVision, Danny called hundreds of events across more than a dozen sports, while stepping in for Chris Carlin and Ed Cohen during radio broadcast conflicts for men’s and women’s basketball. He also met The Scarlet Spotlight co-host Jon Newman during this timeframe, as Newman’s generous donation allowed the launch of KnightVision in 2009.

In addition to Rutgers, Danny also freelanced as a play-by-play broadcaster, show host and content strategy consultant for IMG, WCTC-AM, Verizon FiOS1 Sports, MSG, ESPN and the Northeast Conference. From 2012-2015, Danny joined the radio booth for Rutgers women’s basketball – first as the analyst for Cohen (now the New York Knicks radio voice) and then taking over the No. 1 job during the team’s run to the 2014 WNIT title.

In May 2015, Danny stepped down from his positions with Rutgers Athletics to obtain an MBA full-time at NYU Stern School of Business in New York City. He worked for Wasserman, NBCUniversal and BRaVe Media Ventures (acquired by Turner) during those two years, in positions related to global consulting, TV Everywhere audience development and OTT strategic advisory.

In July 2018, Danny joined iN DEMAND as Senior Account Manager, Content Partnerships after a stint as Senior Manager, Marketing Strategy at Fusion Media Group (2017-2018).

Danny currently lives in the Upper West Side, but makes time to visit Piscataway and New Brunswick to attend as many Rutgers Athletics events as possible, while occasionally filling in for the current play-by-play broadcasters on RVision and the IMG Sports Network.

A supporter of all RU programs, Danny remains a diehard fan of the Rutgers men’s basketball team and often can be found in Section 206, Row G, Seat 12 at the RAC – a location that he has called his second home for more than two decades!

Jon Newman

From birth Jon was destined to go to Rutgers. His parents met there, two uncles and an older cousin went there. He spent much of his childhood going to Rutgers football and basketball games and rooting for the Scarlet Knights.

Jon dodged the yellowjackets at Palmer Stadium at the annual Rutgers-Princeton football pilgrimage. He dragged both his parents to Madison Square Garden to see the 1976 undefeated men’s basketball team. He played with the UHF antenna to watch games on New Jersey Network from The Barn through the snowy reception on his black and white TV. He adjusted his transistor radio to eek out a signal from WCTC in his North Jersey home.

As a freshman at Rutgers in the late 70’s Jon decided to major in English but spent most of this time at WRSU-FM first as a staffer and eventually becoming assistant general manager and then sport director during his senior year. He broadcast countless games across all sports during those four years from famous sports venues ranging from Madison Square Garden to the Palestra to Bryant-Denny Stadium. Jon also concepted a weekly Rutgers sports show called KnightCenter patterned after ESPN SportsCenter that featured reports on all of Rutgers Athletics’ teams.

Upon graduation Jon spent 10 years in radio and television news first in New Jersey then in various places in Virginia and Tennessee before settling back in Richmond, Virginia in the early-90’s. These pre-internet days away from New Jersey made it hard to follow Rutgers sports. Jon subscribed to various services that allowed him to listen to Rutgers football and basketball over the phone and he watched the rare game on national/regional television.

In the mid-90’s Jon made the transition from television to public relations landing a media relations job at the PR arm of The Martin Agency, a nationally-decorated advertising agency in Richmond, Virginia. Over the next ten years Jon worked for national clients landing them placements in media outlets ranging from The New York Times and Wall Street Journal to The Today Show. In 2002 he started his own firm, The Hodges Partnership, with his partner Josh Dare. Over the years the firm has focused on traditional media relations and public relations as well as content marketing and now has a staff of 14.

Thanks to the success of Greg Schiano’s football team in the early 2000’s Jon started to make the drive from Richmond to Piscataway, one that has become very familiar over the years. He became a season ticket holder. He cried while witnessing Pandemonium. He was among the first to invest in Audi Club seats and has gone to three bowl games.

After Jon’s father died as an honor to him he donated to support Tim Pernetti’s concept of RVision and it is there he met Danny Breslauer, the student face and voice of the online video service. His firm donated the first iphone/ipad app for Rutgers Athletics which allows fans for the first time to watch on listen to games on their mobile devices. Currently Jon’s still donates money and time to Rutgers Athletics helping to raise money through crowdfunding efforts on social media.

Jon lives in Glen Allen, VA with his understanding wife Kyra, their children Sarah and Zack and their dog Izzy. He has an R on the back of his car and a six-foot knight statue in his office.